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Long Beach Cottage Rental Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

Long Beach Cottage Rental Frequently Asked Questions
(FAQs)

If you have any questions, please call (905-899-1856) or email us and we’ll do our best to answer all your concerns.

Q: Why “Long Beach Cottages” and not “Long Beach Cabins”?A: Semantics. My grandfather built cottages on Great Lake Erie. Cabins are in woods, or on ski hills. This is a beautiful sand beach and cottages fit beautifully.

Q: Where are you located?A: There’s another menu tab for that (Find Long Beach Cottage Rentals), but it’s 12369 Lakeshore Road, Wainfleet, Ontario, Canada. We’re in the “Long Beach” area of Wainfleet, on the Northern edge of Lake Erie — lucky enough to be on a beautiful sand beach.

Q: Where are your cottages on the property, or in relationship to the beach?
A: There is an overview map (thank you Google maps) on our About Long Beach Cottage Rental pages which answers this visually. Using words: Our cottages sit on over 2 acres of quiet property. The North section is bordered by Lakeshore Road and an ample Meadow Area which provides a beautiful buffer. The South is the sandy beach which Long Beach is so famous for. The East is our sand boat lunch with a wooden fence, and the West is a chain link fence.
Our cottages are in two rows parallel to the breakwall/beach/lake edge. Cottages 1 to 6 are closest to the breakwall while cottages 7 to 10 are in the North row.

Q: How old are your cottages?A: Older than us.
At least one goes back to the 1920’s I’m told. The majority were 40’s and 50’s. They’ve all been updated, renovated, maintained, and well loved over the years. They all have strong foundations, good windows, and steel roofs. If there’s anything you’d like to see done, let us know — we love building projects and are very proud to take care of our property.

Q: Can we drink the water/is the water safe/how safe is the water/water, water everywhere, is there a drop to drink/can I swim/boat/bathe?
A: The easy answer is “yes”.
Potable water is available at every tap in every cottage. We buy our domestic water from a private utility which must meet every Ministry standard that any city in Ontario meets and the water is tested weekly. That being said, some feel more comfortable bringing drinking water while cooking, cleaning, and washing with our provided water.
The domestic water comes from Lake Erie, but is treated to municipal standards. Toronto, Buffalo, Niagara Falls, Hamilton all can (more or less) say the same thing, but are all downstream of us too. Meanwhile plastic water bottles fill landfills, don’t have stringent standards to meet, and nobody’s taxes ever seem to decline.
Lake Erie is truly a Great Lake in every sense. If you are not familiar with it, it does demand respect. Swimming, playing, and generally enjoying the Lake off our sandy beach is plenty safe with proper adult supervision and common sense.
Being the southernmost and shallowest Great Lake, Erie is also credited with being the warmest — averaging in the 70’s (degrees fahrenheit) and not unusual to be 80*f plus by the shore mid July through August. However, shallow can mean waves when there’s wind.
Wavy days can have some dangerous undertows (dragging unsuspecting swimmers out deeper). Our section of the bay is not nearly as bad as when you get closer to the points, especially the East (Augustine/Greybiel Point) end of Long Beach.
We do not have a lifeguard but regularly enjoy the Lake ourselves and highly recommend trying it yourself.
The Region of Niagara (where Wainfleet/Long Beach reside) posts water test results for different spots along Long Beach (and other local waterways) on their website. We tend to be in an area which “cleans out” and doesn’t stagnate and have been fortunate not to have hazardous water conditions posted in the past.
I wouldn’t drink directly from the Lake, we’re downstream of Detroit.

Q: Do you allow pets?A: We do. We strongly believe that pets are members of families which keep us happy and sane. We allow well behaved pups, kittens, and other small domestic pets. (“Small”, key word … if you really must travel with a “large” domestic pet like horse or pig please contact us and we’ll see what we can do. You might be surprised.)
We ask that you keep an eye on your small loved one, leash when appropriate, and (of course, like all responsible pet owners) pick up after your pet.
We remind you that some pet actions you consider acceptable (or even adorable) may not be around others (eg, any humping) and ask that you remain open to suggestions — making everyone’s stay an enjoyable one.

Q: Why do you ask how many people we have?
A: Our cottages aren’t young, being gentle on aging (or “experienced”) things is a nice way to make sure they’re around a long time. People wear on buildings, contents, property, septic (oh, septic, welcome to rural Ontario), and each others’ nerves.
Keeping the right number of guests to bedrooms and bathrooms is easier on the property (and buildings, and contents, and septic) so we may all enjoy it for years to come, but also keeps the family / friendly / safe feeling that we strive for that much more in reach. Please be honest when talking about numbers in your group; we’re excellent counters and won’t take kindly to extra unexpected guests.

Q: May I have guests?
A: Sure, within reason. No more overnight guests than agreed upon when you rented but some day guests are ok. Day guests may park immediately to the left (East fence line) as you pull in.
Don’t be that family who didn’t realize how many friends they had until they rented a beach cottage. Be the family who had fun on the beach while respecting the property, cottages, beach, and landlords. Karma is important.

Q: When do you rent cottages?
A: Summer mostly, a little in the Spring. Never in the Fall or Autumn or Winter.

Q: Okay, but seriously, when do you rent cottages?A: Long story, pull up a chair and get comfortable.
We start booking our rentals in the Fall of the previous year by speaking with previous tenants. We try our best to call or email everybody we’ve helped create a wonderful family vacation for throughout the end of the year/holiday season/into stupid cold months.
By March we usually have confirmation and deposits on a huge amount of our availability and start returning calls for the upcoming season.

Q: I think I meant what months or days do you rent cottages?A: We rent from Victoria Day or Memorial Day -ish (end of May) through to the first couple weeks of September. The end of June to the end of August is super busy.
We do not rent anything less than a Saturday-to-Saturday week.

Q: Do you rent weekends?
A: Nope. The shortest rental duration we offer is one week – from 3pm Saturday to 10am the following Saturday.

Q: Can I rent this Friday and Saturday night?
A: No, we don’t rent in the winter (it’s winter when I’m writing this).. but seriously, No. We don’t rent by the night.

What does Long Beach look like in the winter time?Beautiful! (but cold)

Q: What are your prices?
A: That depends on many variables and varies greatly. We have cottages with 1, 2, and 3 bedrooms; cottages with different proximity to the beach; rental durations ranging from one week to the whole summer. Call us and we’ll let you know what we have available and the pricing for that. Longer stays are less expensive per night and we use a formula that also offers pre and post season discounts.

Q: Why don’t you post your prices and/or availability on your website?A: We don’t see a need to. We’re good, honest and friendly people to talk to, give us a call and we’ll help put together a great family memory.
Plus updating a website never seems as important as doing just about anything else.

Q: Why do you take a deposit, is it refundable?A: We take deposits because someone (not you) will not take their family fun Long Beach Vacation seriously if we don’t take one. That person (not you) will forget about the wonderful and beautiful cottage they’ve “rented” (marks of quotation sarcastically inserted for clarity of not really rented) and instead work that week and be miserable.
While miserably forgetting the relaxation and fun of the cottage they “rented”, you won’t be able to come either, because they took your spot! And all the while, we still have bills coming in.
Deposits are refundable if we rent your time to someone else. If we have to rent for a lower amount because of time constraints, we will refund whatever the difference is.
If you’re not sure, it’s safer not to leave a deposit. But without a deposit, you risk being the miserable person who only “rented” from us and didn’t actually stay as our welcome guest and enjoy the beautiful fresh Lake water, clean sandy beach, and wonderful time making sandcastles and family memories.

Q: Why didn’t you return my phone call/email?
A: We’re sorry, that wasn’t our intention. We work too much and have a lot of demand and sometimes calls or emails slip through. Sometimes the answering machine eats the message or refuses to offer a complete phone number (just offering garbled burps that sound nothing like numbers). Don’t be shy to call or email again, but please don’t be offended if we simply cannot accommodate you.
We give first choice to previous tenants.

Q: Are you the only cottage rentals in Long Beach?
A: Nope, there are other smaller and larger cottages for rent through a variety of friendly landlords. We know several well, and haven’t met one we don’t recommend. We strive to offer a clean, safe, quiet, family friendly experience for everyone we are able to accommodate.

Q: What else does the Greater Long Beach area of Wainfleet have?A: A short walk away is the downtown Long Beach Business area which offers 3 different eating options (one specializing in ice cream!), a fun and somewhat challenging mini-golf experience, a grocery store, and a big-boy toy rental place (including jet skis and such).
A longer walk to the west gives you another small shopping option with another food truck option.
Short country drives take you East to Port Colborne (a kinda real city, minus the movie theater) or West to Dunnville (another city, boasting a hospital). There’s a small marina with a good fried/grilled food stand a short drive (or medium bicycle) West into Lowbanks. Port Colborne has a city boat ramp (for a fee).

Q: What do your cottages have?
A: All cottages include 3 piece indoor bathrooms with showers, kitchens equipped with microwave, refrigerator, gas stove, pots, pans, plates, utensils, and all basic cooking tools. Every cottage also has its own natural gas BBQ.
Every cottage has a television and DVD player, and some level of basic Wifi/internet access (welcome to rural Ontario).
Bedrooms have beds (mostly Queen size) with mattress covers and pillows.
All our cottages have enough indoor seating and tables to accommodate the reasonable number of people expected and basic outdoor seating (including picnic tables).
We sometimes have wood available for beach fires, depending on maintenance and over all use. There are several local places to buy campfire wood.
We provide cleaning supplies, mops, brooms, and vacuums, and ask that you use them to return your cottage rental to the appearance you found it in.

Q: What activities can we do on the beach?A: Long Beach is a largely private beach. We own the sand in front of our cottages, and as such you are welcome to have safe and contained fires, enjoy yummy adult beverages, and generally enjoy any activity which does not infringe on others’ enjoyment.

Q: Is there parking for more than one car?A: We reserve one parking spot for each cottage pretty close to the cottage. You may park additional cars or trailers along the East fence line – to your left as you pull in. We have room, but never seems like enough. Please let us know if you’re bringing/driving something giant and we’ll help arrange some better parking solution.

Q: Boats?
A: A surprisingly big topic in 5 letters. We generally like boats, big or little. With special arrangement we can help you launch up to medium (19 foot inboard/outboard?) sized boats. There are several boat ramps not too far away, we have a sand boat ramp that we’ll share but generally find that kayaks and SUPs and such are happiest there.
We have mixed feelings about jet skis (or perhaps some of their operators) and remind folks that Ontario has some very strict boater operator laws including drinking and operating. Please be very conscious and conscientious of swimmers and beach enjoyers when operating any boat.

Q: What rules do you have?A: First and foremost, we’re about safe family fun. That means different things to different people, but as long as we are all enjoying the beach and beautiful Summer everybody is happy.
• We are completely intolerant of damage to our or others’ property.
• We don’tallowsmoking inside our cottages. Please, pick up your cigarette garbage and properly dispose of it.
• We’re not thrilled with fireworks, but are understanding of special circumstances
• We don’t allow tent or any other forms of camping
• We ask tenants for quiet from 10pm to 8am, reminding people that on quiet nights voices carry surprisingly well. And keep the fun to a reasonable volume at all times of the day. One person’s idea of fun may be much too loud for another’s relaxation.
• We remind people that respect gets respect. There are sometimes many people enjoying beautiful Long Beach and we need to all respect each other so we may all enjoy our quality vacation time. Respect the beach, the Lake, the buildings and property, and most importantly please respect each other.
• These are housekeeping cottages, meaning they are clean when you come in, and we ask that they are clean when you leave.
• Recycle! The Niagara Region has an impressive waste collection program and we provide details to every tenant about it. The green bin (organic waste) program is incredible! We work hard to collect and sort garbage, recycling, and organics and every little bit you do to help is very appreciated. We only are given one Earth.

Whew.
And please ask if you have any questions not covered here, or you’d like included in our FAQ page. Thank you for reading about Long Beach Cottage Rentals.

Long Beach Cottage Rentals are located in Long Beach — Wainfleet, Ontario, Canada. On the sandy shores of Great Lake Erie.